Velocity Girl
Gilded Stars And Zealous Hearts
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Velocity Girl
Gilded Stars And Zealous Hearts
Sub Pop, 1996
RiYL: Belly, Letters To Cleo, Blake Babies, Lush |
But such a seemingly simple formula continues to elude many of the bands that modern rock DJs would have us believe are the future of rock, indie or otherwise. Well, I've seen the future of indie rock, and it ain't Bruce Springsteen.
It's Washington, D.C.'s Velocity Girl, which has authoritatively proven with its third album, Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts, that sweet-sounding alterna-pop isn't that hard to create, after all, the band's previous two discs contain it in plentiful supply too. This new disc also shows a noticeable positive progression in the band's songwriting. While the songs on the band's debut disc Copacetic were rough and often murky sounding, Gilded Stars And Zealous Hearts offers polished and poignant songs that entice the listener all the way through.
Sarah Shannon (vocals) and Archie Moore (guitars, vocals and bass) pack a powerful punch. Shannon's razor-sharp hooks and lyrics and Moore's ultra-pretty melodies are most notable on "Just Like That" and "Zealous Hearts."
Shannon's lyrics contain snippets of dialogue that you've probably felt like saying or had said to you at some point in your life. When she admits with a tinge of reticence "all I wanted was to walk you home / didn't mean that much to me anyways," it's not hard to reminisce about pursuing relationships from afar.
And when Shannon tells the object of her desires in "Go Coastal" that "I would go anywhere if you promise to be there," you can tell she means it. Velocity Girl's songs don't mess around, and Shannon's wry humor in dealing with life's dilemmas is sublimely refreshing.
On "Nothing," she searches for "somewhere to fake all the feelings I don't have. Despite nothing to see and nothing to be, all of this even though just as sure as the past, nothing good ever lasts."
Eloquent in its own unique way, don't you think?
Quirky tempos and Shannon's ability to sing both with and against a song's melody can be found all over the album, with the most notable fruits being "Lose Something," the spectacular "Finest Hour" and the delightful "Gilded Stars."
Another facet of Velocity Girl's music that sets it above most indie rock peers is the strength of its songs. The hard songs get you moving with inventive riffs, but the softer tunes are plaintive and rich with thought-provoking, dreamily delivered lyrics and even dreamier melodies. This band can drive you into a frenzy with one song and then put you in a trance in the next.
Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts is Velocity Girl's most impressive work to date and should show the music world that the days of fancy studio chicanery and arrogant, pretentious rock music and rock stars are not where the future lies. Thank goodness that Velocity Girl is here to help prove it so.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"